6 Tech Releases to Get Excited About This Year

Apple’s iPhone 8

With 2017 well underway, we begin another year of new smartphones, tablets, gadgets and other bits of cool tech designed to make our lives easier hitting the market. While there’s sure to be a number of groundbreaking announcements made through the year, here are five pieces of tech you should already be looking forward to hitting the market this year. 

It seems like as soon as Apple was done unveiling its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus last September, people were already speculating about the iPhone 8. It’s expected that the iPhone 8 will see a huge overhaul to both the design of the chassis, as well as the features offered as the company celebrates the iPhone’s 10-year anniversary.

Speculation already claims the iPhone 8 will have an all-glass design, OLED display, no home button, bigger screen sizes, and plenty more. If the past few iPhone unveilings are anything to go by, Apple will officially reveal its latest smartphone in September, with the handset going on sale a few weeks later.

Currently, no features, release dates, or prices have been confirmed for the iPhone 8, but there’s a good chance we’re going to be very impressed as Apple celebrates the 10-year anniversary. For now, though, it’s just a case of waiting until September.

Nintendo Switch

Nintendo may not be offering cutting-edge graphics with its Switch, but it is offering something wholly unique. Giving players the ability to take console experiences with them on the go as well as play them at home, with a range of control schemes, the Switch is the first hybrid home console/handheld, and a pretty neat one at that.

While some elements of the Switch, such as its online service, remain partially under wraps, there’s still plenty to be excited for. The Joy-Con (those two different sections of the controller in the image above), feature HD Rumble. This allows players to feel a multitude of items bouncing around inside the controller, essentially providing the next step in rumble technology. On top of that, players have the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, I am Setsuna, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Skyrim, and a FIFA title all set to release by the end of the year.

It may not be competing directly with the PS4 and Xbox One, but the Switch is a perfect example of Nintendo’s innovative flair. After all, who doesn’t want to play a console Zelda game as they take the subway to work or get on a flight? And when it comes in at $299.99, the Switch gets a whole lot more inviting.

OLED / QLED TVs

OLED TVs were being shown off at CES back in 2013, so many may not think the technology is actually that new. In fact, there were a few OLED displays available to pick up at the very tail end of last year for a premium price. However, as we move into 2017, you’re going to see more OLED TVs hitting stores and, with a bit of luck, the price come down a tad, too.

Why should you care about OLED TVs? Currently, your LCD TV is using a LED backlight in order to display the entire color gamut. This requires room, making TVs a bit deeper. An OLED TV, on the other hand, is a display made up of organic LEDs that emit light when a current is passed through them.

Not only does this mean your TV can be much thinner, as proven by LG and its wallpaper TVs, but the pixels in an OLED can respond 1000 times faster than LED-back TVs, and even plasma, too. This all basically means that your TV image is literally going to be crystal clear. Images will look incredibly crisp, colors will be more vibrant, and fast-paced action scenes won’t have any of that motion blur you may have noticed.

Samsung’s version of this tech is known as QLED (Quantum LED) which will start rolling out later this year. If you’ve been looking to pick up a new TV, save up and pick an OLED/ QLED up. It’ll be well worth the investment.

Project Scorpio

Back at E3 last year, Microsoft teased Project Scorpio. A native 4K, VR-ready powerhouse that would hit the market in 2017. Boasting an 8-core processor, and six TFLOPS of graphical processing power, Scorpio will become the most powerful games console to date, trumping Sony’s PS4 Pro.

Few other details are really known about the system, but the promise of native 4K console gaming is certainly something console players will be excited for. Xbox fans will also finally be able to jump in on the VR fun, though as of yet it’s not clear which headset players will be using on their Scorpio. However, you can expect Microsoft to announce the Scorpio’s supported VR headset when the console is officially unveiled for the first time.

While players will likely have to wait until around E3 to get more solid details on Project Scorpio, Phil Spencer has already mentioned the system will be priced comparably to other consoles. At least we can wait knowing it’s not going to totally break the bank.

Windows 10 VR Headsets

While VR headsets are nothing new, the market is definitely going to grow in 2017. Thanks to a free Windows 10 update coming early this year, pretty much anyone will be able to use a VR headset with their PC. Not only will the minimum requirements allow those without powerful systems to make use of VR, but there will also be a number of cheaper VR headsets meaning you won’t have to break the bank on the peripheral itself.

Starting at $299, Microsoft’s line of headsets will include inside-out tracking sensors, meaning you won’t need cameras or laser systems set up in your room to track movement. The headsets will be manufactured by HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and Acer. Currently, there’s no release date for the tech, but it’s expected we’ll see the first few Microsoft VR headsets rolling out this year.

Microsoft natively supporting VR opens up a whole realm of new possibilities for how the tech can be utilized, and with a relatively cheap price tag, this could be a huge move for VR as a platform.

Samsung Galaxy S8

All eyes have been on Samsung recently, and it’s not always been for good reasons. After its flagship phablet, the Galaxy Note 7, suffered from an exploding battery problem, its reputation has lost a bit of its shine. Therefore, many are expecting the Korean-based company to pull out all of the stops with its S8 device to get people back on board.

While Samsung has yet to confirm any details, the biggest rumors currently doing the rounds include a 4K screen, a new and incredibly powerful Snapdragon chipset, 6GB of RAM, and another overhaul of the camera.

With Samsung seeing success with its Gear VR headset, it’s possible that the rumored 4K display would go some way to providing a high-resolution VR experience. Though, for now, this has not been confirmed by Samsung.

Fortunately, Samsung fans won’t have much longer to wait for official news on the Galaxy S8. Samsung is rumored to be revealing its next flagship device toward the end of March, according to Italian tech leaker, Ricciolo1.

What tech are you most looking forward to releasing in 2017? Let us know down in the comments below.